Article
Dickey's adds chief brand officer to communicate 'basics done right'
Christie Finley aims to deliver consistent customer experience as company expands rapidly coast to coast.
June 19, 2014 by Brenda Rick Smith — Editor, Networld Media Group
As newly-minted chief brand officer for one of the nation's largest barbecue chain, Christie Finley is focused on making sure every Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurant delivers "the basics done right."
Dickey's created the CBO role to make sure the brand's core values – heritage, innovation, craftsmanship – are represented in everything the fast-growing chain does.
In addition to overseeing all of the traditional marketing positions, Finley is in close communication with leaders across the organization and reports directly to President Roland Dickey, Jr.. Her purpose, she said, is to focus every area of the company on delivering a consistent brand experience for every Dickey's customer.
That's quite a challenge for the company considering its growth pace. Dickey's, which is headquartered in Dallas, just signed a 100-unit deal in California, and is also expanding in Washington and Oregon.
"One of the greatest challenges in a franchise system is in creating a consistent experience across all channels," said Finley. "We want to make sure what you see and get is the same experience when you walk into a Dickey's in California as when you walk into a Dickey's in New York or Texas."
Finley would like Dickey’s signature big, bright yellow cups to be as familiar coast to coast as they are in Dallas.
"In Texas you have customers that already have a very strong emotional connection with the brand, or at least a baseline awareness of the brand. When you hear about Dickey's, you’ll think of the big yellow cup and you’ll have those memories."
Those memories, Finley hopes, will revolve around the brand's signature slow-smoked meats, which use the same recipe as the first restaurant in 1941.
"You can't go into any other fast casual chain and get something that's been cooking for 14 to 18 hours. You can't get that kind of homestyle food in any other fast casual setting and get that kind of authenticity," she said.
Delivering that authentic, artisanal experience will be key outside the South -- where barbecue is a familiar staple -- in places like California. To translate into new markets, Dickey's aims to create the look and feel of a local, rustic barbecue joint.
"It's all about executing. It's about delivering the experience consistently," Finley said.
While Dickey's uses an integrated multi-channel approach to raising brand awareness in both new and familiar markets to drive new customers through the front doors, delivering on that experience will keep customers coming back in. And there's no better method of marketing than brand loyalists, Finley said.
"Customers don't care about advertising, they don't care about getting talked at, they care about getting their needs met in the way they want them met," said Finley.
About Brenda Rick Smith
